Dreamcatchers hang askew and vintage cash registers litter the floor as a downtown institution prepares to close its doors.
For the first time in its more than 60 years of existence, Indian Village Trading Post will not have a presence downtown.
The struggling retailer was unable to strike a deal for reduced rent or space with its La Placita landlord, HSL Properties Inc. And so the store will empty by June 30.
"It's a very sad time for me," said the company's owner, John Atkinson, during a break from loading his truck. "We've tried to grow with Tucson because we love this city. But my heart's always been downtown."
The seller of Southwestern gifts and handmade American Indian jewelry will divide its downtown staff and merchandise among its remaining four stores - three at Tucson Mall and one at La Encantada. The company also leased a warehouse and office space near Tucson Mall, Atkinson said.
He holds out hope that Indian Village Trading Post will again reopen downtown, despite the "empty promises" of the area's redevelopment. "It has a lot of charm. I believe it could be successful. I wish I could win the lottery and prove that I'm right," he said.
Indian Village Trading Post ended up at La Placita five years ago as a direct result of one of Tucson's most bitterly remembered development deals.
Its former location - an 1897 building at the corner of East Congress Street and South Scott Avenue - was slated for redevelopment as part of a Rio Nuevo plan.
That property, as well as much of the south side of Congress Street between Scott and Stone avenues, was sold by the city to Bourn Partners for $100 in 2004.
The city then tore down pioneer rancher George Pusch's 19th-century building. The block once included the Thrifty Drug Store, Fields Jewelers, Little Cafe Poca Cosa and the Pusch building, last used by a restaurant called Talk of the Town.
The Indian Village building was ensured survival as part of the deal, but the company had to vacate.
Between 2004 and 2007, when the faltering economy made financing unworkable, Bourn made several proposals for the site, including retail, condo and hotel components. But it still sits vacant, the flat dirt lot now used occasionally for video projections during Second Saturdays events.
Bourn encouraged Indian Village Trading Post to rent space in one of its other properties, which included La Placita at the time, and Atkinson moved reluctantly.
He has been trying to buy the store's former building since before Bourn acquired it. He'd still like to purchase it, but it's wrapped up in the stalled redevelopment deal.
Family company
The Indian Village company has been in the Atkinson family since John Atkinson's uncle Leroy Atkinson started it in the early 1950s.
It wasn't long after its beginnings that it leased 72 E. Congress St., so for Atkinson, that building and the notion of having a store downtown are linked to memories of his youth and his children's childhoods.
His sons dusted the counters and polished jewelry during their summer vacations. When he returned from Vietnam in 1971, he began working with his father, Jake Atkinson, at the store. He later opened his own shop and then bought the company from his father.
The building was something of an icon and a flagship even as the company spread with shoppers into outlying malls. For many years, it glowed with the light of a neon Taos Indian hoop dancer.
Though he is admittedly sentimental, Atkinson is not one to resist the changing times. He plans to shift with development and shopping pattern changes and said his product mix will, too.
Though he wasn't thrilled to relocate to La Placita, the move was initially a success.
"When we moved in, we had three times more business than we had on Congress," Atkinson said.
The Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau, which runs a visitors center in the complex, "was running hordes of people through here," he said.
Atkinson began stocking Tucson souvenirs and T-shirts, and revenues soared. The store began staying open seven days a week.
He initially signed a one-year lease, then inked two-year deals because the location was so profitable.
Good times end
With the recession, though, the good times ended. Fewer tourists came to town and spent less. Bourn also ran into financial trouble and complex maintenance dropped off. In default on a $2 million second loan, Bourn lost La Placita to HSL in December 2011.
"The last couple of years have really hurt," Atkinson said.
He requested reduced rent and discussed halving his square footage beginning in April, but he and HSL were unable to work out an agreement.
"We couldn't go as low as they were looking for," said Omar Mireles, HSL's executive vice president. "I have a sense that the location as a whole wasn't working for their business."
Sharon Thomas, who has worked for two years in Indian Village Trading Post's La Placita store and nine years for the company, has taken the move personally.
"It's been hard," she said. "It's a family-owned business, and he (Atkinson) makes his normal employees feel like family."
Tears welled in her eyes as she paused while cleaning.
Silversmith Marc Contre- ras, however, barely looked up from hammering a ring.
He will transfer to one of the company's three stores run by J.D. Atkinson, one of John Atkinson's sons.
Thomas will handle shipping and receiving in the new warehouse.
"But with retail the way it is, I don't know what my hours will be," she said.
Did you know?
A 10-foot neon Taos Indian hoop dancer above the entrance to the Indian Village Trading Post's old store glowed out a welcome to nighttime visitors on East Congress Street for three decades. Just before the building at 72 E. Congress St. was renovated in 1986, its dancer sign was bought, removed, rehabbed and stored for safekeeping, in the hope that it will someday glow again downtown. Indian Village Trading Post was forced out of the building in 2007 as part of a redevelopment plan.
Source: Star archives
Contact reporter Carli Brosseau at cbrosseau@azstarnet.com or 573-4197.
